This application claims priority from European patent application number 99126198.3, filed Dec. 30, 1999, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a system and a method for request based installation, customization and activation of software packages or products on a large computer system operated by a system control program.
2. Background Art
Large multi-user computer systems such as, for example, IBM OS/390, are sensitive about introduction of new software programs or services. These computer systems are used for many different applications. The same software programs/packages may need to be set up differently depending on what other software is installed and what applications they will be used for.
A straight forward and highly productive approach as used on workstations, where endusers usually install software packages themselves using an automated install process, is not feasible in large multi-user environments. This is mainly because typically thousands of endusers share such systems. Any failure during the installation process can jeopardize the availability or performance of the system, thereby impacting other users, or adversely impacting the protection of sensitive information belonging to the enterprise. Usually, dedicated technical staff is responsible for coordinating the use, administration and maintenance of such systems. Examples are installing and servicing of new software packages, authorizing access to sensitive or proprietary data, providing services and access from networks, organizing placement of databases, etc. Furthermore, many enterprises have multiple compute center sites. Often, the software setup process has to be repeated on each of those sites, because of slight variations in the computing environments.
Simpler software setup procedures are wanted in such complex environments. Such procedures should also enable and ensure enterprise specific responsibilities and policies.
Tools and processes available for workstations are not usable for this purpose. On workstations the process provides a simple dialog to give the enduser the ability to customize the software package or product and then executes a script to install and register the product. A typical example is the program xe2x80x98InstallShield Professional 2000 Internationalxe2x80x99, distributed by InstallShield (R) Software Corporation, Chicago, Ill., USA. This program consists of a set of tools to be used by software package owners to condition the program packages and to facilitate the installation process by generating the dialogs and the installation script. Scripts are series of commands or a program usually written in the batch execution command language of the particular operating system to perform the actual installation and registration. This known program does not comprise provisions for IT staff to control and coordinate these actions. Such provisions are not supposed to be needed on workstations which are normally dedicated to one user.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved software setup procedure for large computer systems.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a system and a method for a request based installation, customization and activation of software packages or products on a large computer system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system and a method which enables and ensures enterprise specific responsibilities and policies in connection with a request based installation, customization and activation of software packages or products on a large computer system.
The system according to the invention, as defined in the claims, comprises a setup infrastructure for coordinating the loading, customization, binding and activation of the program package or product to be installed. A plurality of exploiter plug-ins, each connected to one of said system resources, are used by the setup infrastructure means for creating a product definition, for providing customization dialogs and for supporting the initialization and modification of the program package or product to be installed. A plurality of supporter plug-ins are provided, each connected to selected ones of said system resources for supporting the binding procedure by providing bind services to the setup infrastructure. The supporter plug-ins are used by the exploiter plug-ins to establish binding to at least some of the program packages or products already installed, where the binding parameters needed by the exploiter plug-ins are indicated to the supporter plug-ins by Bind-Requests.
According to another aspect of the invention package adapter plug-ins are provided which identify various data formats, one of said third type plug-ins is assigned to a program product to be installed for indicating to the setup infrastructure the specific package formats as used by said program.
According to another aspect of the invention a management directory is connected to the setup infrastructure for storing all data associated with a particular software package or product and references to portions of said software package or product in a system library. These references are used by the setup infrastructure for accessing said data in a system library wherein said software package or product is stored.
Furthermore, according to the invention a method is provided, as defined in the claims, for request based installation, customization and activation of software packages or products on a large computer system.
Due to the declarative nature of bind requests and the capability to have a set of SI-supporters, the setup task will be much more complete. Support will not only exist to set system parameters, but there will also be supporters for areas like security, TCP/IP, etc. Therefore a program product can be taken into use after the request based software setup is complete without additional manual interaction.
Since properties are stored in the management directory, the plug-ins of the first type can provide intelligent customization dialogs. These dialogs can work with various sources of parameter values: defaults provided by the plug-ins of the first type, customization data from previous releases, primed data from the target system and customization data of other products. This can be used to achieve increased ease of use by offering a guided mode relying on defaults, further an intelligent migration support from an older to a newer program product release, an intelligent checking of prerequisites and corequisites, and an intelligent and ease of use customization by understanding the context in which a product will be used.
Since properties and bind requests can be exported and imported, and since bind requests contain references instead of copied values, installations can be replicated with minimal human interaction on the receiving side. This capability of replicating reference installation saves redundant effort for setup.
Due to the possibility of policy-based procedures, the customer""s organization of authority for critical areas (security administration, database administration, network administration, etc.) are respected. If the customer changes his organization, the request based software setup can easily be adapted.
Since bind requests model a state of the system and since the plug-ins of the second type are strictly separated from the role of the first type plug-ins, the unbind of requests can be handled in a clean way: During reconfiguration, if old requests are replaced by other new requests, the plug-ins of the second type can verify that no other exploiter depends on the old request and eliminate its effects in the system resources so that no garbage will be left over. The same is true when removing a product from a system. The supporter can verify that no other exploiter depends on requests of the product to be removed, and then eliminate its effects in the system resources. Also in this case no garbage will be left over.
Due to its dynamic plug-in capabilities, the solution according to the invention is applicable as well to heterogeneous environments including computer systems of different manufacturers.